NEW YORK — Goodbye, gypsy girl; hello, Queen Victoria.
At the Designers & Agents show, the ubiquitous gypsy skirt-and-peasant top look gave way to elegant blouses and jackets with details from the Victorian era, plaid suits and other separates that lend themselves to be worn with jeans, including cardigans and camisoles with thick-yarn embroidery.
The latest edition of D&A, which ended its three-day run at the Starrett-Lehigh Building here on Feb. 14, started amid the second-largest snowfall in the city’s history, which turned the anticipated attendance on its head. Traffic on the first day of the show was spotty, with only one-third of the 900 expected stores making it to the building.
But Ed Mandelbaum, who cofounded the show with Barbara Kramer, said: “On Monday, we made up for it.”
Held in four studios on two floors of the building, D&A attracted 195 exhibitors, up 10 percent from last year, and about 2,000 stores attended the show, up from 1,700.
Kramer said trends took a turn for the more feminine, from Victorian silhouettes to sheer fabrics often offered in layers. She added that accessories are becoming increasingly important in the fall market.
“Accessories are often not as strong for this quarter as they are for the in-between markets, but now they seem to be taken as seriously as the ready-to-wear,” she said.
Ed Bucciarelli, president and chief executive officer of Henri Bendel, was at the show looking to pick up emerging brands that are “venturing into the New York market,” he said.
“D&A was successful for us in that we found resources for both spring and fall,” Bucciarelli said. “Rebecca Norman and Page Sargisson both showed beautifully refined metal jewelry. We plan to bring them both into the store for immediate deliveries, along with Tsuyumi hats with crochet trim that are perfect for the spring season. For fall, we were in search of refined handbags with clean silhouettes in gray, navy and shades of brown and black. M0851 and Lumi both presented sophisticated handbag and small leather goods collections with the subdued color palette that is so on-trend this season, and Nicole Finetti, a fresh collection from Australia, showed beautiful suede perforated triangle wraps.”
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Gail Elliott, owner of the Little Joe by Gail Elliott New York boutique in Sydney, was looking for new lines for her store, while also exhibiting her own collection, which bears the same name as the boutique, a branch of which she hopes to have opened in New York by this time next year.
“For my store, I really liked the April, May collection; the T-shirt label Puella; belt company Nyovee, and rtw designer Tufi Duek,” Elliott said.
For fall, Little Joe launched a group of cashmere tops with matching cardigans. Wholesale prices range from $75 to $95 for a silk camisole to $110 to $130 for dresses.
The booth for New York-based What Comes Around Goes Around, which started as a downtown vintage boutique but launched a clothing collection for spring, was worthy of a Broadway stage. The firm salvaged a wood-paneled private library and re-created it at D&A to offer a setting for the label, which is designed by creative director Karen Boyle-Maione, who mixes different eras, such as the Sixties and Seventies, for her designs. For fall, the WCAGA collection, which wholesales from about $88 to $500, included hand-stitched embroidered cotton and velvet jackets.
London label Ross + Bute by Anonymous showed at D&A for the first time, offering pointelle knits made in England on 180-year-old machinery, including cardigans with a French tulle finish. The label also offered floral-print and polkadot tea dresses. Wholesale prices range from about $31.50 to $201.
London designer Madeleine Press, meanwhile, offered chunky knit cardigans and dresses with floral embroidery. Wholesale prices range from $250 to $350 for chunky knits, $300 to $400 for tailored coats and $235 to $416 for dresses.
“I am seeing a trend toward Victorian, new-romance looks and ruffles,” said Brigid Flood, director of sales at New York- and San Francisco-based Hengst. “For fall, there is a return to classic pieces you can wear season to season.”
A top seller at Hengst, which wholesales from $75 to $350, was high-waisted plaid pants.
“The show has been great, even on Sunday, when it was nearly impossible to get here,” Flood said. “For those people who made it, it was business as usual.”
Diane Malcolm, sales manager for London-based label Saltwater, which focused on separates in woven Scottish wools at $43 to $250 wholesale, concurred. “By Sunday afternoon, there were lots of buyers who had managed to get into New York before the storm,” she said. “Even in dire circumstances, the fashion industry always carries on.”